Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

*Authors Note: Woohoo! 500 chs! To celebrate, there’s some new ’art’ of Future Eris up on Discord!*

And with that, the two young men, or rather, the young man and the boy stepped into the ring.

Standing roughly 2 metres from the outer perimeter, and 4 metres apart from each other, Lucas and Landon lowered their stances, bracing themselves for the coming battle.

Many who were less familiar with Lucas and with Landon wondered why the latter was taking this fight so seriously considering the perceived difference in strength, and many people were whispering amongst themselves about how this matchup was unfair, but since Celestina and the rest of the higher-ups weren’t saying anything, they also held back any objections they might have had.

Among the Darr Kingdom youth, the mood was practically celebratory as all of them believed victory was already within their grasp; only Zara had a solemn expression on her face.

She had grown up together with Landon and thought of herself as something of a big sister to him, so she could tell that he wasn’t just treating this match seriously because of its symbolic importance. Everything about Landon right now, from his posture to the glint in his eyes screamed to her that he was wary of his opponent.

Why that was, Zara couldn’t understand, but she figured she would know in a few seconds, so she too held her tongue.

.....

Obviously, Lucas couldn’t serve as referee for his own match, so a neutral observer was needed to fill the role.

Fortunately, the members of Talia’s group weren’t the only foreign guests present at the banquet tonight.

Malini, a rather seductive looking Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate from the Tarnath Dynasty, who was in Misty City as an envoy of the Tarnath Royal Family, confirmed with both fighters that they were prepared, then raised her hand, "Ready... fight!"

As soon as the signal was given, both Landon and Lucas charged, though perhaps due to the difference in size, when the pair met, they were still much closer to Lucas’ side of the ring.

Immediately, the difference in mass and power became apparent, with Lucas slipping backwards almost a full metre before managing to blunt the momentum of his much bigger opponent.

3 metres from the edge of the ring, Lucas was tightly gripping Landon’s belt, while Landon, because he was so much taller, had grabbed a handful of Lucas’ shirt.

The two both pushed hard; however, it was obvious to everyone that Lucas was losing ground.

This was the expected result, and one that many from the Rockwell Kingdom simply couldn’t bear to watch, especially when Lucas began leaning back under the strain.

2.5 metres...

2 meters...

1.5 metres...

Lucas was now in an extremely awkward stance, like he wasn’t just being forced back, but bent into submission.

What’s more, thanks to having just seen what Zara had done to Timothy, Landon was already on guard against Lucas using a similar maneuver to reverse the situation at the last second.

Cheers from the Darr Kingdom’s side rang out loudly, but the voices of support for Lucas on the Rockwell Kingdom side also hadn’t faded, especially those of Eris and Christina, the latter having gotten over her bout of annoyance and rejoined the crowd just in time to cheer for her Senior Brother.

Still, it now seemed like a foregone conclusion that Landon would win, right up until the moment Lucas swung his head forward violently, ripping his shirt in the process and smashing his crown into Landon’s jaw.

The blow came so fast, from so close, and was so unexpected, that Landon failed to react in time and received a direct hit.

Though he hadn’t lived a very long life yet, Landon had actually taken harsher blows than this, so he was only dazed for a brief moment, but that moment was just enough time for Lucas to fall backwards and throw him over his head.

By the time Landon returned to his senses, he was already flat on his back, staring up at a slightly orange-dyed sunset sky.

Lucas was also flat on his back, his head resting just inside the white chalk perimeter, like he had calculated exactly how close he needed to get to perform that last overhead throw without actually falling out-of-bounds, which was indeed what he had done.

Knowing he couldn’t win in a pure physical conflict with Landon, Lucas had instead been using his Soul Sense to carefully monitor how close he was to the edge of the ring so he could time his surprise attack.

Landon hadn’t noticed anything was off, because Lucas wasn’t faking anything; he really was fighting back with everything he had, he simply knew that everything he had wasn’t going to be enough and had taken that into account.

"Heh, haha, hahaha!" Suddenly, a burst of laughter erupted from behind him, causing Lucas to tilt his head up awkwardly to see what was happening.

There, still lying on the grass, the usually stone-faced prince from the Darr Kingdom was actually laughing gleefully.

In the next instant, Landon leapt to his feat, turned around, and extended his hand to Lucas, an offer the young boy accepted with a grin.

"It was a good fight!" Landon smiled happily.

"En, I had fun too," Lucas smiled back, shaking the young prince’s hand firmly.

Only after the two competitors were back up did the crowd seem to snap out of their daze and cheers immediately went up all around.

The youths from the Darr Kingdom were naturally disappointed, but seeing their prince accepting his defeat so freely and graciously, like a true warrior, they still had plenty of reason to feel proud.

Malini, the referee, also smiled charmingly as she loudly declared, "Winner, Lucas of the Rockwell Kingdom!"

Of course, there were more than a few amongst the crowd who wondered if the move Lucas pulled in order to win was against the rules, but with just a little review, all of them smiled wryly as they realized they had been under a false impression the whole time.

When Lucas proposed this competition as a way to settle the argument about which kingdom’s youths were stronger, he had only set 2 rules.

Rule 1: The first to touch the ground outside the ring loses.

Rule 2: No kicking or punching. Your hands may only be used to grapple or throw your opponent.

In other words, while using your arms or legs to attack was against the rules, there was nothing saying you couldn’t headbutt your foe.